...I'm also wondering:
What all did Belichick learn from the Rams' Nov. 18 win at Foxborough?
It might be heresy here to suggest that Spygate did little to help Belichick figure how to derail the Rams in SB36... but 60 minutes of game film had to be a heck of a sample size for him. After all, the Patriots' greatest wins in the Belichick era have typically been built around "winning" not the entire game but rather the one or two key snaps happening right here and right now.
Maybe, in his team's 24-17 loss on Nov. 18th, Belichick noticed just one or two Achilles' Heels inside the GSOT that he could use if he played it again.
(In the same vein, maybe he discovered from prior game films of the 2014 Seahawks that Pete Carroll liked to call a quick slant pass near the goal line. So Belichick called coverage that would have Malcolm Butler
right there at the right time. Just a theory.)
Anyway...
I'll go to my grave not over Spygate but rather believing that, starting with The Tuck Rule, the NFL in post-9/11 was not about to render a crucial game call against a team named the
Patriots. I'm convinced that the fix was in for New England, with Tagliabue's blessing, beginning with that Raiders fumble recovery that suddenly wasn't. The fix continued a few weeks later in SB36 with the permitted mugging, again after again, of the GSOT skill-set players.
If there was no KO by either "boxer," if it came down to points on the "judges' scorecard," there was no way the NFL was going to let a team named the
Patriots lose so soon after 9/11.
.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2020 12:54PM by Oakville Tim.
